Chapter 347: Standing Out

Pan Dao Yong patted the back of his daughter’s hand. "Looks like business at your shop will be good. That’s great. If you run into any problems you can’t solve, just tell Dad. I’ll help you figure something out."

"Mhm!" Pan Junru nodded obediently. "But there probably won’t be any problems. I’m opening it with a good friend. Dad, Xiao Lan is super capable!"

The father and daughter chatted for a bit, then Pan Junru checked the time and said she had to go do her homework.

At Boya High School, she was not only ostracized for being a transfer student from the Lower City District, but the homework was also much heavier than at Mingde. She spent at least three hours on it every day.

Luckily, she had her good friend Xiao Lan. Whenever she really couldn’t finish, she could copy her homework.

「The next day.」

Pan Junru woke up for her online classes. A servant helped her change into a presentable outfit before she sat down at her desk and turned on her video for class.

Pan Junru secretly stifled one yawn after another. She had stayed up too late playing on her Light Brain after finishing her homework and was exhausted this morning.

During a break between classes, Pan Junru enthusiastically messaged Shen Lan about the shop.

Pan Junru: Xiao Lan, on opening day, can I ask Brother Xing for an autograph? I want a personalized one.

Shen Lan: That should be fine.

Pan Junru: That’s great!~ Can I get a photo with him too?

Shen Lan: Junru, you should ask Li Zexing himself about these things. I can’t make decisions for him.

Pan Junru: But aren’t you good friends?

Shen Lan nearly rolled her eyes into the back of her head. ’Didn’t I only say Li Zexing and I were good friends to boost my own profile?’

Although others didn’t quite believe her, they saw that Li Zexing did associate with her, so while they were still skeptical, they weren’t too hostile toward her.

’But she herself knew perfectly well that Li Zexing couldn’t stand her. If Aunt Lin wasn’t forcing him, he probably wouldn’t give her the time of day.’

’With such a flimsy relationship, how could she possibly speak for Li Zexing?’

’Sometimes, having an idiot for a sidekick was a real headache.’

Shen Lan: How’s it going with finding those ingredients I asked you about? They’re very important for Shuiyunjian, you know.

Pan Junru: I’ve been negotiating with them, but to know the actual quality, we should probably go check them out ourselves. Let’s wait for the weather to clear up a bit.

Shen Lan: Fine.

Shen Lan: Class is about to start. Talk later.

Shen Lan cut the conversation short to keep Pan Junru from trapping her in a pointless chat.

She opened DouDou, searched for Shen Lu’s account, and watched her latest videos.

"Bitch."

When she saw that Shen Lu had opened a seating area with booths and started selling specialty stir-fried dishes, Shen Lan couldn’t help but curse under her breath.

’Shen Lu isn’t doing this for no reason. She must know my private restaurant is about to open, so she’s doing this on purpose to compete with me.’

"Hmph. It’s useless no matter what she does. The Lower City District is full of lowly, second-class citizens. How much spending power can they have? Do they even know how to appreciate fine food?"

Shen Lan closed DouDou in a huff, mulling over whether she should also make a DouDou account and post cooking videos every day like Shen Lu.

But she quickly shook her head. ’How could I just casually show off the techniques I learned from the Kitchen King to just anyone?’

’Besides, I’m making high-end private cuisine. I have to maintain an aura of mystery and class. Only those with status and power are worthy of seeing and tasting my food.’

’I’m nothing like Shen Lu, catering to the lower class, setting her prices so cheap, and attracting nothing but a bunch of poor freeloaders.’

After her morning classes, Shen Lan went downstairs to the kitchen.

Since she couldn’t attend her classes these days, she had been practicing in her family’s kitchen, making a few dishes for them to eat every day.

It was just supposed to be practice, but her family ended up genuinely impressed with her cooking. As a result, even Mr. and Mrs. Shen, and her brother, began to treat her more kindly.

Today, she was making Pagoda Pork, a very labor-intensive dish.

Shen Lan truly had a knack for cooking. She could make many dishes look quite impressive after learning to cook them just once.

The Kitchen King who taught her had initially agreed to give her some pointers just for the money. However, after a few lessons, he started to consider taking Shen Lan on as his final disciple and had even mentioned it once.

However, Shen Lan didn’t agree immediately. She just said she had to ask her parents, using it as an excuse to put him off.

’Shen Lan had no desire to be stuck in a kitchen every day—all that oil and smoke would ruin her skin! Once she becomes the Crown Prince Consort, the most she’ll do is occasionally whip up a few snacks for the Eldest Prince. Just enough to look the part will be fine; she doesn’t need to be a master chef.’

’Being a chef is a servant’s job. If it wasn’t for the chance to meet the Eldest Prince, she wouldn’t have bothered learning to cook at all.’

Mrs. Shen took a few pictures of the Pagoda Pork and posted them to her social media feed, adding a classic humblebrag for the caption.

Mr. Shen tried a bite of the Pagoda Pork and commented that it was good. Shen Yi said nothing, simply grabbing a large chunk with his chopsticks and wolfing it down with his rice.

"So, you said you’re opening a shop with a classmate?" Mrs. Shen picked up her chopsticks and asked casually, "Where did you get the money?"

Shen Lan hadn’t told her family about opening the shop. She had her reasons; it was better not to say anything before everything was set in stone. That way, she could avoid any unexpected issues that might stop the shop from opening, which would only worsen her family’s opinion of her.

Now, however, she had even managed to wear down the difficult Li Zexing until he agreed. Everything was ready. All they needed was for the weather to clear up, and they could open for business. Now was the right time to tell her family.

After all, the grand opening would be a good opportunity to impress her family and show them that she was valuable.

Unlike those other rich young ladies who only knew how to eat, drink, and have fun, she was capable, ambitious, and had a powerful connection helping her.

"I’m contributing my skills as my share of the investment, so I didn’t need to put up any money," Shen Lan said with a touch of pride.

"Tch. With skills like that, your shop is bound to go under," Shen Yi suddenly piped up.

Anger flared in Shen Lan’s heart, but not daring to lash out, she could only turn to Mrs. Shen with an aggrieved look on her face.

Mrs. Shen coughed lightly. "Xiao Yi, don’t talk to your sister that way."

Shen Yi: "I’m not wrong, though. Her cooking is only on par with an average chef’s."

Shen Lan bit her lip. "I’ll get better."

’She had only been studying for less than a month and she was already this good. With a little more practice and study, she would definitely outshine everyone.’

Mr. Shen glanced at the three of them. "That’s enough. All of you, quiet down and eat."

As the one with the most authority in the family, his words carried immense weight. The table fell silent at once, and everyone lowered their heads to eat.

Meanwhile, Shen Lu was swamped with work.

The daily mission was complete and the Lottery Ticket was safely secured. However, she was still twenty customers short of her weekly mission target—and those twenty were the mercenaries from the Gale Mercenary Corps currently sitting in the booth section.

The twenty of them split into two tables and immediately started ordering up a storm.

There were twice as many of them as yesterday, but they ordered three times the amount of food.

They were especially fond of the braised beef, with each table ordering ten jin of it.

It was an absurd amount. After all, one plate of braised beef was one jin, which meant ten jin was ten plates.

And even that, they clamored, wasn’t enough. Ideally, they wanted five plates each.

"Boss Shen, can we get more braised beef?" Mo Bei asked, his mouth slick with grease as he ate. "This is just incredible. When I went home last night, I was still tasting it in my dreams."